Co-determination and working time accounts in the German finance industry

This article examines the workings of co-determination in the German finance industry through two case studies examining the introduction of working time accounts. It is shown that the accounts posed important new challenges for employees and works councillors that represented variants of long-existing negotiations around working time issues. The problems were clear and similar in both cases, giving rise to complaints to councillors, though not to managers. Councillors’ responses differed in the two companies. In one, they successfully re-negotiated the agreement under which the accounts had been introduced. In the other, they did not succeed in doing so. The differences between the two representative bodies are analysed to reflect on a theory of employee representative influence.     

CONTRADICTORY COUPLINGS: PROFESSIONAL IDEOLOGY IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL LOCALES OF NURSE TRAINING

Nursing is a contemporary occupation which has developed an explicit ‘professional project’. In the UK this has centred around an occupational ideology which stresses managerialism and credentialism. This occupational ideology comes into contradiction with older conceptions of professionalism which are couched in vocational terms. The vocational meaning is shown to be situated and reproduced in organizational locales which serve to undercut the managerialist and credentialist meanings. The focus of these cross-cutting meanings is the interpretation of a ‘good nurse’. Using a ‘negotiated order’ perspective, focusing on ‘contradictions’, case study material suggests that there are important gaps between formal representations of the professionalism project and the actual, situated practice of ‘nursing’. For trainee nurses these gaps are particularly apparent. In day-to-day organizational life they have to negotiate contradictory conceptions encountered in the diverse locales of ward work and nurse training. In addition, the different meanings may be encountered even in the same locales.     

Measuring entrepreneurial quality in southern Europe

The main objective of this paper is working out an empirical methodology to measure the quality of the entrepreneur’s booster function, so that policy makers have an appropriate diagnosis of the qualities of entrepreneurs in their area. In this sense, two essential elements are the construction of an explanatory model, and the establishment of an entrepreneurial typology with respect to quality levels. This methodology is then applied to determine the quality level of entrepreneurs in Seville province (southern Spain), using Partial Least Squares estimation technique on a survey of 278 entrepreneurs from various activity sectors and with firms of different sizes.     

Leading knowledge-workers through situated ambiguity

The paper explores how formal leaders make sense of and deal with autonomy of knowledge-workers. Based on interviews, I suggest that leaders make sense of knowledge-workers’ autonomy as ranging from perfectly autonomous to too autonomous to less independent to acting childish. This ambiguity was dealt with by making sense of leading as ranging from facilitative and supportive approaches to more controlling, even reprimanding acts. This empirical investigation of constructions of ‘leader/ship’ and ‘followers’ contributes to leader/ship-follower/ship literature. The paper’s contribution to theory lies in the notion of situated ambiguity; a way to understand the emerging way through which formal leaders navigate and smoothly move between their own differing perspectives, different practical situations, various culturally acceptable understandings of leaders and knowledge-workers.     

Researching and developing practice traditions using reflective practice experiments

Building a science on the foundations of practitioners’ experimentation was one of Donald Schön’s abiding interests. This paper outlines a method of reflective practice research on which this kind of science can be built. Its basic elements are: (1) A focus on the “sense” practitioners make of their situations. This allows for a much richer explication of practitioners’ understanding. (2) Formally differentiating between kinds of reflective thinking to demonstrate rigorous reliance on our practice, as experienced, as we reflect. (3) Use of a non-standard logic and a distinctive grammar in describing the “sense” we make of our practice situations, as this enables a much more faithful rendering in models and theories of our sense of orientation. (4) A method of combining these in an experimental practice that enables models of practice traditions to evolve, taking in insights from innovative practice, and experiences from diverse cases.     

菲亚特-克莱斯勒的“开局时刻”

老选手,新搭档,已处市场边缘丽家国际汽车制造商在中国再度出发,他们能否逃离梦靥?身为菲亚特-克莱斯勒集团亚太区采购负责人、广汽菲亚特总经理,两鬓斑白的台湾人郑显聪正迎来事业上的关键时刻,他为此已经奋斗了五年。避开菲亚特、克莱斯勒在中国市场那段著名的失败史,郑显聪与他的同事们正在导演一场"颠覆大戏",试图让两个品牌在看似大局已定的中国市场上卷土重来。这可能吗?但无论如何,开局时刻到了。     

Remaking Equality: Community Governance and the Politics of Exclusion in Bogota's Public Spaces

Bogota's public space policy is often credited with promoting inclusionary principles. In this article, I explore critically the content of Bogota's articulation of equality in public space policy. In so doing, I present a critical view of the work Bogota's insistence on equality does to mediate class relations in the city, relying on deeply held conceptions of both social extremes. This results in the construction of a version of social harmony in public space that at once depoliticizes the claims to public space of subjects such as street vendors and the homeless and claims a new role for the middle class in the city. The analysis focuses on two examples of community governance schemes, documenting the logics and methods used by communities to implement official visions of equality and justify the exclusion of street vendors and homeless people from the area. By looking at the articulation of these exclusions in local class politics through seemingly inclusionary rhetoric, the article accounts for ‘post‐revanchist’ turns in contemporary urban policy, while anchoring its production in local processes of community governance.     

Strategy rhetoric in city management: How the presumptions of classic strategic management live on?

This article focuses on the cultural and textual (re)production of the taken-for-granted assumptions of orthodox strategic management in city management practice. It is suggested that in order to make sense of the persistence of some of the classic difficulties of strategic management we need to study not only the strategy processes, but also the language practices of the dominant strategy models. By performing a detailed textual analysis of the rhetoric of one particular strategy document, the article shows how strong strategic leadership and hierarchical relationships persist. In addition the analysis illustrates how a paradox called `participation by command’ is produced by combining the classic top-down strategy rhetoric with the new strategy discourse focusing on empowerment, networks and cooperation.     

Business is Show Business: Management Presentations as Performance

While there is continual scholarly interest in the ‘organization as theatre’ metaphor, extant dramaturgical perspectives limit the ability to account for aesthetic experiences in theatrical situations. This study provides a different methodological lens for looking at ‘theatre’ in organizations and illustrates that an inclusion of performance theory can be particularly valuable for understanding aesthetic techniques which are increasingly employed in organizations. Responding to calls for aesthetic studies, this article analyses large‐scale management presentations such as annual general meetings, press conferences, and analyst meetings ‘as performance’ instead of re‐labelling them as if they were drama. Drawing on the latest theatre theory and introducing a tool for performance analysis, the study accounts for the aesthetic experience and describes the complex interplay of scenography, lighting, clothing, managers' performance style, rhetoric, and audience interaction, showing that these organizational events are co‐created and contested theatrical performances with a potential for resistance and possible change as well as for persuasion.     

The Influence of a Structurationist View on Strategic Management Research*

ABSTRACT In this article, strategic management research using structuration theory from 1995 to 2000 is reviewed. I describe and analyse the theoretical articulations adopted to make sense of strategy using a structurationist view. I found that, instead of being applied as the sole theoretical foundation, Giddens’ propositions have been incorporated into other perspectives, the effects of which should be known by researchers looking for theoretical frameworks that avoid dichotomist thinking. The paper draws on the effects that structurationist arguments may produce regarding classical oppositions such as micro/macro and voluntarist/determinist. Its main contribution is to show how theoretical complementarities using structuration theory are promising avenues of research in the strategic management field. It also suggests that, although other alternatives of avoiding dichotomist logic exist, making a choice among them is more a question of ontological affinity than of making the ‘better choice’ among competing accounts. There are several routes to advance the understanding of the possibilities of human choice.     

Constructing HR information systems

Accounts of human resource information systems (HRISs) range from predominantly technical accounts, which assume that the data contained and the way it is organised are straightforward reflections of reality, to accounts which see such systems as a way of exercising disciplinary power through the creation of a new view of the organisation. These different conceptions are explored through an investigation of three organisations which were developing information systems relating to workforce skills and workplace requirements. The article focuses on different conceptualisations of skill and their significance for approaches to HR strategy. It is also concerned with the way in which managers develop and refine such information systems, and the analogy of mapping is examined as a way of understanding this process.     

关系强度对出口绩效影响的实证研究

以浏阳花炮生产企业为分析样本,将关系强度分为信任、关系承诺、合作性、灵活性和持久性5个维度,出口绩效分为战略出口绩效和财务出口绩效2个维度,利用结构方程模型研究生产企业与中间商的关系强度,对出口绩效各维度产生的影响进行了实证。     

企业财务诊断视角下的企业应收账款管理分析——以KN公司为例

财务是企业发展的命脉.随着企业竞争环境的日益复杂,财务链完整、有序地运营已经成为企业竞争中的重要环节.其中,应收账款管理正被越来越多的企业所重视.企业的应收账款能够直接反映企业的资金周转情况,直接决定了企业是否能够顺利开展日常业务.文章选取KN公司为研究对象,通过走访调查以及搜集相关二手资料,分析KN公司应收账款的管理现状,并结合KN公司的经营特点,发现KN公司应收账款管理中存在应收账款增长速度快、占总周转资金收入高等问题;同时,还明确了KN公司的经营风险和财务风险,分析了应收账款对KN公司经营发展存在的影响,并针对性地提出了一些建议,以期能够帮助KN公司实施更好的应收账款管理.     

Towards high performing hospital enterprise systems: an empirical and literature based design framework

Our understanding of enterprise systems (ES) is gradually evolving towards a sense of design which leverages multidisciplinary bodies of knowledge that may bolster hybrid research designs and together further the characterisation of ES operation and performance. This article aims to contribute towards ES design theory with its hospital enterprise systems design (HESD) framework, which reflects a rich multidisciplinary literature and two in-depth hospital empirical cases from the US and UK. In doing so it leverages systems thinking principles and traditionally disparate bodies of knowledge to bolster the theoretical evolution and foundation of ES. A total of seven core ES design elements are identified and characterised with 24 main categories and 53 subcategories. In addition, it builds on recent work which suggests that hospital enterprises are comprised of multiple internal ES configurations which may generate different levels of performance. Multiple sources of evidence were collected including electronic medical records, 54 recorded interviews, observation, and internal documents. Both in-depth cases compare and contrast higher and lower performing ES configurations. Following literal replication across in-depth cases, this article concludes that hospital performance can be improved through an enriched understanding of hospital ES design.     

论如何提高工程预结算的准确性

当前,基本建设管理工作中概算超预算、预算超决算的问题十分严重。工程预结算的准确性对合理确定工程造价、控制工程成本、提高企业经济效益起着重要的作用。文章通过分析工程连设项目各个阶段预结算的管理控制,提出一套较为合理、科学的提高工程预结算准确性的方案。一个工程项目从基础施工、主体封顶到装修竣工,循序渐进没有重复,这要求项目成本管理工作要同步前进、不能反复,特别是周期长、耗资大的工程项目,如果疏于成本管理则代价将是巨大的。     

Exploring the Persuasiveness of Accounting Numbers in the Framing of ‘Performance’ – A Micro-Level Analysis of Performance Review Meetings

Based on a micro-level analysis of performance review meetings and drawing on an interactional framing perspective, this paper analyses the role of accounting numbers as ‘framing devices’ in discussions about performance. Analyzing interactions between superiors and subordinates, we examine how and why these two groups of actors mobilize different accounting numbers to make claims about performance and try to persuade the other party. Our interest is with the choice of accounting numbers and how they come to be seen as persuasive. The main theoretical argument developed in this paper is that whether a specific accounting number or indicator comes to be seen as persuasive or not in a particular situation is both a matter of how legitimate the underlying indicator is to the actors involved as well as whether they regard the signal it provides, i.e. the actual outcome on this particular indicator, as salient when compared to the actual outcomes on alternative indicators. Taken together, our findings suggest that persuasiveness is not an ‘objective’ quality of accounting numbers, but a situated achievement that results from interactive alignments between different actors with potentially competing interests.     

Alternative Capitalism and Creative Economy: the Case of Christiania

The Free Town of Christiania is an autonomous community of about 1,000 inhabitants in the centre of Copenhagen. Built as a squat for a hippy community in the 1970s, it is today a central node in the geography of activism, anarchism and alternative social life. This article analyses Christiania from the specific perspective of creativity and within the context of the ‘creative city’ debate. The Free Town is a lively innovative milieu, nurturing the arts, social experimentation, ideas and original architectural solutions. As such, it is becoming a more and more relevant space from the point of view of the market economy and in the promotion of the idea of a ‘creative Copenhagen’. But I argue that much of its creative potential is connected to place‐specific socioeconomic factors. In this sense, the Christiania experience troubles mainstream conceptions of creativity by revealing that creativity is both fluid and situated.     

The value of subjectivity: problems and prospects for 360-degree appraisal systems

This paper focuses on the problems and prospects of 360-degree feedback methods. The rationale behind these appraisal systems is that different evaluation perspectives add objectivity and incremental validity to the assessment of individual performance. This assumption is challenged in this paper. Our research shows that there is a consistent difference in self- and supervisor ratings especially. This implies that, as long as these differences are understood as the result of several effects in measuring one's performance, the multi-source assessments will lead to a false sense of security and objectivity. Instead, when the differences are understood as subjective evaluations with a value in themselves, then different perceptions can be used for a better understanding between supervisors and employees of the working relations, personal performance and underlying motives for career development. Several recommendations are made for human resource management practices and future research.     

谈建筑设计企业应收账款的管理

应收账款是销售的产物,是企业营运资金管理的一项重要内容。应收账款管理直接影响企业营运资金的周转和经济效益。如何管理应收账款,已经成为企业管理中不容回避的一个重要问题,也是困扰企业的一个重要问题。文章阐述了应收账款的定义与管理的必要性,分析了建筑设计企业对其管理的现状、存在的问题,并指出了加强管理的对策与思路。     

On the formal definition of the systems’ interoperability capability: an anthropomorphic approach

The extended view of enterprise information systems in the Internet of Things (IoT) introduces additional complexity to the interoperability problems. In response to this, the problem of systems’ interoperability is revisited by taking into the account the different aspects of philosophy, psychology, linguistics and artificial intelligence, namely by analysing the potential analogies between the processes of human and system communication. Then, the capability to interoperate as a property of the system, is defined as a complex ability to seamlessly sense and perceive a stimulus from its environment (assumingly, a message from any other system), make an informed decision about this perception and consequently, articulate a meaningful and useful action or response, based on this decision. Although this capability is defined on the basis of the existing interoperability theories, the proposed approach to its definition excludes the assumption on the awareness of co-existence of two interoperating systems. Thus, it establishes the links between the research of interoperability of systems and intelligent software agents, as one of the systems’ digital identities.